We recently connected with Kalenga Augustine Mulenga and have shared our conversation below.
Kalenga Augustine, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Can you open up about a risk you’ve taken – what it was like taking that risk, why you took the risk and how it turned out?
It was a Sunday in October. That’s all that I can remember. I can’t remember the specific date, just that it was a Sunday in October 2020. My family and I were driving home from church, we are Catholics and attend mass every Sunday. We had just driven past my first born daughters Primary School when my 11 year old son mentioned that there was a writing competition at his school. Like a bolt of lightning it hit me and I told them that I used to write stories when I was a kid. I could tell that there was some disbelief from most of them but then I went into more details and told them that I had actually won 2 prizes for my writing. One was for a story called the Obstinate Donkey and the other was for a story called The Whale. They all wanted to know what I had won. Well my prizes were amazing for me at the time. A subscription to the Puffin Book Club and more books!
Now that brought to me ooh’s and aah’s from them and at that exact moment I declared that I want to start writing again.
Since that day, my mind went into overdrive. I started drafting manuscripts like crazy while also doing research on how to turn my manuscripts into published books. Searching for an editor, an illustrator and a distributor while researching on how to market the books once published. All this while running a small accounting and tax firm….Oh I forgot to mention , I am an accountant and tax practitioner, I have been running my little practice for the past 10 years or so.
Since that day in October , The Obstinate Donkey has become Donk and the Stubborn Donkeys and The Whale has become Will and His Best Friend Whale. I have been juggling my time between writing, publishing and marketing my books while number crunching and bean counting AND being a good father and husband.
It has been quite a journey and sometimes it has been a bumpy ride. I must say the highs have exceeded the lows and I know that I will reach my goal and target of becoming a full time writer soon. I just want to thank God, my family especially my wife and kids and all the other support that I have received, both personally and professionally.
I now have self-published 32 children’s picture books, my short stories, my memoir and have traditionally published my middle grade novel.
Kalenga Augustine, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?
My name is Kalenga Augustine Mulenga aka K.A. Mulenga. Writing is my passion. I started writing when I was 10 years old and my passion was reignited by my 11-year-old son. Writing runs in my blood as my late father was a journalist and the first black editor of the Zambia Daily Mail and my late brother was a poet. To date, I have self-published 31 children’s books. They are available on Amazon and also on my website and various other platforms. I am a prolific writer and love writing children’s books with a positive message while also making them laugh and be entertained. I recently published my memoir ( Makeni Homeboys) and have a publisher agreement for my middle-grade novel which is due to be released later this year. I have written 3 short stories and published occasional blogs.
My short story, Striving To Be Number One won a Creative Writing Contest in April 2021.
Three of my books, Donk and the Stubborn Donkeys, Chuck the Cheetah, and Will and His Best Friend Whale have been # 1 Amazon Bestsellers in different categories.
Chuck the Cheetah recently won second prize at the Coppa Book Awards in the Children’s
Books category.
I also received an Honorary Award for my 3 books Chuck the Cheetah, Drew the Dragon and Harry the Honest Horse from ACYTIN (African Child Your Time Is Now)
My dream is to get my books made into an animated tv series .
We’d love to hear your thoughts on NFTs. (Note: this is for education/entertainment purposes only, readers should not construe this as advice
I actually think they are great and have converted some of my illustrations and covers to NFT’s.
For you, what’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative?
The most rewarding thing is being appreciated for my work. I would like to share an email that I received from a reader for my book Drew the Dragon. This brought tears to my eyes.
Hi Mr Mulenga
Just a quick note to say my partner and I have recently read Drew the Dragon to our little six-year-old Daughter after borrowing it from our local library.
Since then we have taken to heart the line, where there is great love, there are always miracles! which we now state whenever possible. This is particularly poignant to us as we recently became her adopted parents and positivity and love moving forward is our family mantra. With your permission, we will have the saying printed and hung on our wall to be seen as a reminder that despite the hard times there is love and miracles to come.
Thank you. Mike.
Contact Info:
- Website: http://kamulenga.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/k.a.mulenga_author/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/KAMulengaWriter
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kalenga-augustine-mulenga-435477201/
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/mulenga_a
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCFsRvnD9MLmLHci-HuvuS_Q